“Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NET).
As we continue our look at 2 Timothy 3:16-17, we now come to another important aspect of this passage: while the original Biblical writings were inerrant, that does not mean that the original human authors were inerrant as well. This is important because it is natural to wonder how a mistake-prone human being could be used of God to produce a mistake-free Biblical document.
Although this objection sounds compelling, it overlooks something important: while imperfect people do make mistakes, that doesn’t mean they always make mistakes. For instance, human beings are capable of completing many tasks without error. Furthermore, it would seem relatively easy for God to use error-prone human beings to communicate His Word in an error-free way when we consider the all-powerful nature of His being.
Others may object to the God-inspired nature of the Biblical Scriptures by pointing to the use of technically incorrect terms like “sunrise” in passages such as Numbers 34:15. This objection finds its origin in the belief that an all-knowing Creator would know that the earth orbits the sun and therefore, the sun doesn’t actually rise each morning.
It might seem easy to reject this objection as a minor squabble over word meanings that the Bible tells us to avoid. However, this type of objection often functions as a tool that others may use to cast doubt upon the credibility of the Scriptures. So before we dismiss this argument as a hypercritical objection, we should remember the words of 2 Corinthians 10:5 and observe that it is not a mistake to communicate with others in common, everyday terms.
Since the context of a word helps define its meaning, we can say that the use of the term “sunrise” in the Bible does not refer to the movement of the sun in relation to the earth. Instead, this word is employed as we commonly use it today- it accurately describes the way the sun appears as morning draws near.
Some may also take issue with the varying details that appear within the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life. In response, we may simply note that it is unnecessary for two or more people to produce a word-for-word description of the same event to be truthful. For instance, the act of describing the same event in varying detail (as is often seen within the Gospels) doesn’t necessarily mean that those accounts are contradictory. Instead, the variety of detail in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life helps provide us with a fuller, richer description of His ministry.